Open Data has the potential to unlock between $3 trillion to $5 trillion annually in economic value, says a report by McKinsey. Specifically, the identify seven sectors of the global economy where the value could be attained.

Michael Chui, principal at McKinsey, told CMSWire that that “open data has traditionally been motivated by societal goals such as improving transparency. But it is important to recognize that by opening data, you also create significant economic value.”

While the McKinsey results are interesting, they seem a bit of a stretch. While certainly Open Data is one technology that can contribute in improving the areas that they suggest, Open Data alone will not be able to unlock the enormous projections that McKinsey forecasts. Parallel advances in Big Data, analytics, and computing all play an equally important role in helping to better utilize and achieve value from data.

The McKinsey report found that “Making data more ‘liquid’ (open, widely available, and in shareable formats) has the potential to unlock large amounts of economic value, by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing processes; making possible new products,services, and markets; and creating value for individual consumers and citizens.”

Transportation – Open data could realize $720 billion to $920 billion in value by helping to improve planning and management of infrastructure. Open Data can also improve the purchasing, deployment and maintenance of fleets, and it can improve decision making by customers to better select from travel options so as to fit their needs and schedule.

Electricity – Open data can help enable $340 billion to $580 billion annually by helping to optimize how money is spent and invested for power generation. It can improve and make more efficient power generation. It can help to identify and develop ‘smart grid’ technologies for achieving more efficient transmission and distribution of power, and it can help consumers be better informed about the electrical appliances and the electric power services that they use.

Oil and Gas – Open data can enable $240 billion to $510 billion annually by providing better seismic and geologic information that can help oil and gas businesses better decide how to invest in future discovery. Better data can improve the efficacy of exploration and production, help businesses better select plant locations, and to improve the reliability of their refining, processing and retail operations.

Health Care – Open data in the Health Care industry can help realize $300 billion to $450 billion annually. The data could help people make better lifestyle and treatment decisions. The data can guide practitioners into selecting more effective treatments. Consumers would be better able to wisely select providers that better match their needs, and also help them to be more cost-effective in the decisions that they do make. Health-related research, such as in the area of new drugs and better medical devices, could be make more productive.

Consumer Finance – Open data could unlock $210 billion to $280 billion annually. Better targeted and custom-designed financial products could be developed with better data. Consumer marketing could be more targeted. With better data, consumers would be able to make better informed financial decisions.

The golden age of iPhone calendar apps kicked off a little more than a year ago.

iPhone カレンダー･アプリに、黄金時代が訪れたのは、１年と少し前のことである。

In the span of a few months in late 2012 and early 2013, Fantastical, Tempo and Sunrise all launched smart calendar tools that rethought the traditional design and functionality of calendar apps. Apple later appeared to borrow some of this design with the iOS 7 update to the default calendar app. Now, what is arguably the best of these calendar apps is coming to the iPad.

Sunrise, an app developed by two former Foursquare designers, launched for iPad on Thursday with all the perks of the iPhone version and some new options. You can scroll through a list of the day’s scheduled events, as you would with the iPhone version, or take advantage of a new weekly and monthly viewing mode, which offers a clearer picture of how much free time you have. The iPhone version has also been updated to offer a three-day work week view.

Both versions of the app also make it easy to enter in scheduled items on the go. The app offers a quick pull-down list of generic events — call, coffee, meeting, etc — which you can tap to add to the calendar. You can then add a map of the location, select other contacts attending the event and add additional notes.